Ogino Family Residence (Ashikaga)

About the Ogino Family Residence (Ashikaga)

The Ogino Family Residence (荻野家住宅, Ogino-ke Jūtaku) is a merchant household's compound in Tori 3-chome, Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, built around a main house of 1892, and its four structures were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on August 3, 2006. The plot runs deep, with an old highway along its north edge and the JR Ryomo Line tracks along its south edge, and it keeps a Meiji-era house and fireproof storehouse, a gate and a post-war board wall in one continuous sequence.

The name Ogino Family Residence also belongs to buildings in Shimonita, Gunma Prefecture, and in the old post town of Kumagawa in Wakasa, Fukui Prefecture. Those are other families' houses with no link to this one. This page covers the four structures in Ashikaga.

The Ogino Family in Ashikaga

Ashikaga City's account traces the Ogino family to Kanagawa. Buhei (武平), the first head, set up a branch household and moved to Ashikaga at the end of the Edo period. Minehachi (峯八), the third head, ran a general goods business and gave the family the footing it still has. Mantarō (萬太郎), the fourth head, was among the founders of Ashikaga Bank and sat on its board as an auditor until 1934.

The present main house is said to have been built by Minehachi, in Mantarō's name, when Mantarō was about 20. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to 1892. The inner storehouse just to the west dates from the same year: an ink inscription on its ridge beam records the date and the name of the master carpenter, Kobayashi Risuke (小林利助). The two Meiji buildings of the Ogino Family Residence were, in other words, put up together.

Layout and Registration of the Ogino Family Residence

From the old highway the Ogino Family Residence stretches back toward the railway. The Agency's descriptions place the four structures as follows.

• The front gate stands toward the east end of the north boundary, set slightly back from the highway and facing the entrance of the main house. It is an Udekimon, a gate whose roof rests on bracket arms, dated to the middle of the Meiji era.
• The main house sits in the northern part of the plot. It is a two-story timber building with a footprint of 180 square meters, and a kitchen wing was added on its northwest side in the early Taisho era.
• The inner storehouse stands west of the main house with its ridge running north to south. It is a two-story Dozo-zukuri building with a footprint of 71 square meters, joined to the house by a covered Kuramae.
• The south wall is a timber wall running east to west along the boundary with the railway land. It is 21 meters long and dates from about 1950.

All four were entered in the 51st round of registrations on August 3, 2006, with the official notice following on August 24, 2006. Their registration numbers run consecutively from 09-0141 to 09-0144. The main house and the storehouse were registered as models of design, while the gate and the wall were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. In plain terms, the two Meiji buildings earned their place on their own merits, and the gate and wall for how the property looks from the highway and from the tracks.

Ashikaga City describes the gate as Meiji-era and the board walls as dating from the 1955 to 1964 period. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives about 1950 for the south wall, and this page follows the Agency.

Visiting the Ogino Family Residence

The Ogino Family Residence is a private home, and Ashikaga City's list of registered buildings gives the owner as a private individual. It is not open to the public, and visitors cannot enter the grounds or the buildings. We found no notice of regular openings. Ashikaga City holds an autumn special opening of cultural properties each year and announces the participating sites on its website.

What you can see from outside is the front gate on the old highway and the exterior of the main house behind it. The inner storehouse lies within the plot west of the house, and the south wall faces the railway. Please take photos only from the public road and keep clear of the residents and of passing traffic.

The nearest station is Ashikaga Station on the JR Ryomo Line. From there the Ogino Family Residence is about 850 meters to the west, roughly an 11-minute walk. From Ashikagashi Station on the Tobu Isesaki Line it is about 1.3 kilometers north across the Watarase River, around 17 minutes on foot.